The purpose of the Institutional Development Award (IdeA) Program is to foster health-related research and increase the competitiveness of investigators through support of faculty development and enhancement of the research infrastructure of institutions located in states with historically low aggregates success rates for grant awards from the NIH (RFA +RR- 00-003). Thus, we propose to establish a Center for Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE), with the thematic focus of Functional Genomic/Proteomic Analysis of Bacterial-Host Interactions. The proposed COBRE will be headed by an established NIH-funded investigator and includes three new investigators and an established investigator who do not have a prior history of NIH R01 support. This is a state-wide initiative that includes the three major publicly-supported research institutions in the state of Oklahoma: 1) the University of Oklahoma (OU), 2) the Oklahoma University Health Sciences Center (OUHSC), 3) Oklahoma State University (OSU) and the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (OMRF), a private research institute located near the OUHSC campus. The OUHSC functional genomics support core is equipped to perform all aspects of gene expression profiling using microarrays and high throughput DNA sequencing. This core will fully support the functional genomic studies proposed in projects one and two by David . Dyer, Ph.D. and all Darrin Akins, Ph.D. In addition the core will spur faculty development by provide training and technical support to other OUHSC faculty.